Persimmons are the goths.

Persimmons don’t hold to a traditional standard of beauty. When you think that your persimmons have gone bad – when they are ugly and smooshy and make people turn away in disgust – that’s the perfect time to eat them. In fact, if you eat a persimmon when it’s still “pretty”, it can cause a weird numbing reaction in your mouth.

Persimmons are elusive. You have to be in the store during the correct couple of weeks of the year (now) or be lucky enough to know someone with a persimmon tree. Once you find persimmons, you’re never quite sure what to do with them. While there are millions of pumpkin recipes, the goth vegetable is almost exclusively used for persimmon pudding – a dark and heavy dessert.

Pumpkins are the cool kids.

Everyone wants pumpkins. People love them so much that they keep some just for decoration and don’t even eat them! They’re easy to find. They are the vegetables that are featured in the front of the store. They are the ones that people want to pose their children with.

I couldn’t help but throw in a cute photo of our son!

News Flash

If you are looking for a unique flavor, don’t look to the cool veggie on the block. Pick up some persimmons now – while you can – and use them in place of pumpkin in any pumpkin recipe. You can make persimmon pie, persimmon cake, persimmon cookies, persimmon ice cream, and of course persimmon cupcakes! Don’t put persimmons in a persimmon pudding corner!

Special Thanks

Special thanks to freelance writer Matt Sorrell. He was working on an article about persimmons for one of St. Louis’s food magazines, Feast, and wanted to feature a persimmon cupcake. I checked my archives twice, but I found no persimmon cupcakes. I wrote Matt back and told him that I didn’t have a persimmon cupcake, but that I would surely rectify the situation in time for his article to go to print. Here is the online version of the article in Feast.

Oh my! I’m so glad you shared this :) My mom loves Persimmons and she loves cupcakes, so, as I was eating one today, I was actually thinking about whether or not YOU had a recipe for a Persimmons cupcake.

And I’m so glad you do! And, ironically, posted on the same day I was thinking about it :) Hehe. I can’t wait to surprise my mom. Thanks a bundle :)!

Ok, I must be honest here – I didn’t even know what a persimmon was! However, got some from my mother in law and this is a great use for it, since I’m not a huge fan of them raw. Thanks for the great ideas – keep ’em coming!

I grew up with persimmon trees. Despite my mom baking everything, she never used persimmons. The only thing I ever knew they were good for was wine. I ADORE the flavors, though, and may have to try a persimmon cupcake.

I agree, we followed the recipe exactly for the frosting, but it turned out super liquidy, i tried to strain most of the juice out, but it still didn’t work. We left ours in the fridge over night and still no good. Is there something else it can be used for? Or should we just toss it?

To Laura and Anonymous, the problem may be the type of persimmon used. There are two types of persimmons, astringent and nonastringent. The astringent ones tend to have more water in them. So depending on which type you used that may be the problem.

I found a recipe lately and did some experimenting…. If you beat/whip your persimmons with your rising material (baking soda and let it set awhile (10-15 min) it makes the persimmons not so heavy. You will actually see the difference after they have set.